All purpose/all weather city dweller w/highway hauling needs

Member1478

Moving from a smaller city to Chicago, we would like to reduce our fleet...swapping our older Honda Accord and Jeep Patriot for one new, all-purpose vehicle. One which gives us 4WD/AWD for winter use in town, that's also small enough to comfortably parallel park, and with enough utility/space to haul things around as needed. But we also need something with more towing capacity than the Patriot (2000 lbs max), since we are putting most of our belongings into storage @ 700 miles away, and sometime over the next year will move from our current apartment to something of our own, so we'll be making several trips with a U-Haul trailer over time (not to mention moving a kid in out-of-state college back-and-forth as well).

So in my mind I'm looking for a V6 SUV, knowing the gas mileage won't be ideal, but also knowing we likely won't be driving as much (plus dropping to one car, with lower total insurance costs and such, it should balance out).

I keep coming back to either the Jeep Cherokee or possibly a base/Laredo Grand Cherokee?the former being right-sized but also knowing from my parents' ownership of one the back seat isn't great on long trips?the latter being on the upper limit of being too big (though I see plenty around), but I assume it'd be more comfortable on the highway. Both properly equipped should give us ample towing capacity, and would serve the purpose, and as a brand I'm fine with (since Jeeps tend to age well, though the Cherokee is likely due an update since it's been out 4-5 years now). We tend to keep cars 10 years so not as concerned about resale as much as reliability, and parking on the street we don't want anything too flashy that'll attract attention.

So are those two vehicles my best options? Or what am I overlooking that should be on my list? Would rather spend somewhere between $20-30k, though the middle of that range would be preferred.

Response from NormT

12:09 pm June 7, 2017

Those middle sized CUVS might be a little small for a family plus hauling all their stuff . if mileage driving will be low I'd look on swap lease for a Tahoe or the like. With 21-23 mpg on the highway plus AWD available plus unlimited towing of U-Haul trailers.

Response from Member1478

10:30 pm July 4, 2017

We ended up buying a new 2017 Honda CR-V EX-L. Granted it doesn't have the towing capacity I'd originally wanted, but it should be reliable and easy to drive in town. We did add the roof rails and crossbars, so I can use our rooftop luggage carrier to increase hauling options, and while I might add a receiver hitch to use a bike rack and such, at 1,500 pounds of towing capacity I don't really see pulling a trailer with this one. But having moved quite a bit of stuff since originally posting this question, I suspect we'll make small loads work on most upcoming trips, and when the time comes for the next big move, we'll simply rent a U-Haul truck and move the things I might have done piecemeal with a trailer.